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Abstract:

An electronic commerce system having means for re-formatting data received
from an Internet electronic commerce site into a format suitable for
display on a target Internet Protocol television.

Claims:

1. An electronic commerce system comprising means for re-formatting data
received from an Internet electronic commerce site into a format suitable
for display on a target Internet Protocol television.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the data received from the
Internet electronic commerce site comprise one or more data pages having
a first format.

3. A system as claimed in 2, wherein the system reformats the received
data pages into one or more output data pages having a second format
different from the first format.

4. A system as claimed in claim 3, including a video converter for
converting output data pages to a video stream.

5. A system as claimed in claim 1, including determining means for
determining a suitable format for data to be transmitted to the target IP
television.

6. A system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the determining means are
adapted to determine a characteristic of a set-top box associated with
the target IP television.

7. A system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the determining means retrieve,
in use, a suitable format for data to be transmitted to the target IP
television from a first database.

8. A system as claimed in claim 1, including a second database for storing
data received from the Internet electronic commerce site.

9. A system as claimed in claim 8, wherein the second database stores, in
use, re-formatted data.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1, being adapted to retrieve data from
the Internet electronic commerce site in response to a user request.

11. A system as claimed in claim 1, being adapted to retrieve data from
the second database in response to a user request.

12. A system as claimed in claim 2, being adapted to reformat a data page
received from the Internet electronic commerce site by changing its size.

13. A system as claimed in claim 2, being adapted to reformat a data page
received from the Internet electronic commerce site by changing its
aspect ratio.

14. A system as claimed in claim 2, being adapted to reformat data pages
received from the Internet electronic commerce site by changing their
page layout.

15. A system as claimed in claim 2, being adapted to reformat a data page
received from the Internet electronic commerce site by increasing a font
size.

16. A system as claimed in claim 2, being adapted to reformat a data page
received from the Internet electronic commerce site by changing a font
type.

17. An electronic commerce system comprising a video converter for
converting output data pages to a video stream for transmission to an
Internet Protocol television.

18. An electronic commerce method comprising re-formatting data received
from an Internet electronic commerce site into a format suitable for
display on a target Internet Protocol television.

19. A method as claimed in claim 18, including transmitting the
re-formatted data to the target Internet Protocol television.

20. A method as claimed in claim 18, including the step of receiving the
data from the Internet electronic commerce site as one or more data pages
having a first format.

21. A method as claimed in claim 20, including the step of reformatting
the received data page(s) into one or more output data pages having a
second format different from the first format.

22. A method as claimed in claim 21, further including the step of
converting output data pages to a video stream.

23. A method as claimed in claim 18, including determining a suitable
format for data to be transmitted to the target IP television.

24. A method as claimed in claim 23, wherein the step of determining the
suitable format comprises determining a characteristic of a set-top box
associated with the target IP television.

25. A method as claimed in claim 24, wherein the step of determining the
suitable format further comprises retrieving, from a first database, a
suitable format for data to be transmitted to the target IP television.

26. A method as claimed in claim 18, including storing data received from
the Internet electronic commerce site in a second database.

27. A method as claimed in claim 26, further including storing reformatted
data in the second database.

28. A method as claimed in claim 18, including the step of retrieving data
from the Internet electronic commerce site in response to a user request.

29. A method as claimed in claim 18, including the step of retrieving data
from the second database in response to a user request.

30. A method as claimed in claim 19, further including the step of
reformatting a data page received from the Internet electronic commerce
site by changing its size.

31. A method as claimed in claim 19, further including the step of
reformatting a data page received from the Internet electronic commerce
site by changing its aspect ratio.

32. A method as claimed in claim 19, further including the step of
reformatting data pages received from the Internet electronic commerce
site by changing their page layout.

33. A method as claimed in claim 19, further including the step of
reformatting a data page received from the Internet electronic commerce
site by increasing a font size.

34. A method as claimed in claim 19, further including the step of
reformatting a data page received from the Internet electronic commerce
site by changing a font type.

35. A method as claimed in claim 18, including the further steps of:
displaying a virtual keyboard on the target IP television; and entering a
user request using the virtual keyboard.

36. A method as claimed in claim 35, further including selecting one or
more virtual keys of the virtual keyboard using a remote control unit of
the target IP television.

37. A method as claimed in claim 18, including the further steps of:
mapping one or more alphanumeric characters to keys of a remote control
unit of the target IP television; and entering a user request using the
remote control unit.

38. An electronic commerce method comprising the step of converting output
data pages to a video stream for transmission to an Internet Protocol
television.

39. A method of providing encoded data entry, comprising the steps of:a)
associating one or more alphanumeric characters with a respective
permutation of one or more keys of a control unit;b) displaying the
association of the one or more alphanumeric characters with the
respective permutations to a user;c) determining the entry of a
permutation of one or more keys of the control unit; andd) determining
the alphanumeric character associated with the entered permutation.

40. A method as claimed in claim 39, wherein step (b) comprises displaying
the association on the display of a television, and the control unit is a
control unit of the television.

41. A method as claimed in claim 40, wherein step (a) is performed in a
controller of the television.

42. A method as claimed in claim 41, wherein step (a) is performed in a
set-top box of the television.

43. An apparatus for providing encoded data entry, comprising:a) means for
associating one or more alphanumeric characters with a respective
permutation of one or more keys of a control unit;b) a display for
displaying the association of the one or more alphanumeric characters
with the respective permutations to a user;c) means determining the entry
of a permutation of one or more keys of the control unit; andd) means for
determining the alphanumeric character associated with the entered
permutation.

Description:

[0001]People are making ever more use of the Internet for shopping, and
many business now have web-sites through which their goods and/or
services may be purchased by consumers. However computers, particularly
personal computers (PCs), are currently the principal means of access to
the Internet, but many people do not own a PC or are reluctant to use
their PC for shopping.

[0002]Many more people own television (TV) sets than own a PC. It is
possible to access the Internet using a suitable TV set, and this is
known as Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). IPTV is a system is a
system where a digital television service is delivered using Internet
Protocol over a network infrastructure. A general definition of IPTV is
television content that, instead of being delivered through traditional
broadcast and cable formats, is received by the viewer through the
technologies used for computer networks. It is possible to use IPTV to
access most information and services that are available on the Internet,
including Internet shopping services (or "e-commerce" services), and this
potentially increases the potential market for Internet shopping beyond
those people who own a PC.

[0003]An IPTV set essentially comprises a TV set and a "set-top box". In
general, a "set-top box" is a component that interfaces between a TV set
and a source of television signals other than conventional terrestrial
broadcast signals such as, for example, satellite TV signals. In IPTV, a
set-top box is a small computer that provides two-way communications on
an IPTV network (to allow TV signals to be transmitted to the IPTV set
over the IP network, and to allow signals to be returned by the IPTV set
to the IP network).

[0004]There are however several fundamental limitations imposed by a
standard IPTV setup that restricts its usability, such as: [0005]1)
Screen size/resolution--although High Definition Television (HDTV) is
gaining in popularity, the vast majority of the installed television base
has much lower display resolution than the display of a typical PC.
[0006]2) Restricted input device--most remote controls for a TV set or
IPTV set lack alphanumeric keys and a computer mouse, and this poses
significant limitations on the ability of a user to interact with web
pages. [0007]3) Limited ability of set-top boxes--underpowered set-top
boxes often mean limited browser functionality. [0008]4) Data entry at a
subscriber location is often by means of a list of characters, for
example a "virtual keyboard", displayed on the subscriber's
television--this entails a lack of privacy for entering confidential data
such a password, since anyone within viewing range can see which
characters have been entered.

[0009]U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,052 proposes an Internet shopping system hosted
on a TV set-top box, in which the remote control for the set-top box is
provided with a microphone and voice recognition capability, so that a
user may enter commands by speaking into the microphone. However, a user
who already owns an IPTV set with a conventional remote control is unable
to make use of this solution without purchasing new equipment.

[0010]A first aspect of the present invention provides an electronic
commerce system having: means for re-formatting data received from an
Internet electronic commerce site into a format suitable for display on
an Internet Protocol television set. Following the reformatting the data
may be transmitted to a target IPTV for display--the re-formatting
addresses the problem that the display of a typical IPTV has a lower
resolution and/or screen size than the display of a typical PC, and
allows the user to see a good quality image.

[0011]Other aspects and features of the present invention are set out in
the remaining claims.

[0012]Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described
by way of illustrative example with reference to the accompanying Figures
in which:

[0013]FIG. 1 is a schematic block view of an IPTV e-commerce system
according to the present invention;

[0014]FIG. 2 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating operation of the
e-commerce system of FIG. 1;

[0015]FIG. 3 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating operation of the
e-commerce system of FIG. 1;

[0016]FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of a system for converting a web
browser session to a video signal;

[0017]FIG. 5 is an illustration of a shopping page as displayed by the
e-commerce system of the present invention; and

[0018]FIG. 6 is an illustration of a virtual keyboard as displayed by the
e-commerce system of the present invention

[0019]FIG. 1 is a block schematic diagram of an e-commerce system of the
present invention. The e-commerce system comprises an IPTV trading
platform, denoted as block 201. The objective of the IPTV e-commerce
system is to aggregate and adapt the content from one or more Internet
e-commerce sites (only one Internet e-commerce site 800 is shown in FIG.
1, but in practice there would be many such sites), for use on an IPTV
owned by a subscriber to an IPTV service. The IPTV equipment at the
subscriber location 900 comprises a TV display 103 which is controlled by
a set-top box (or decoder) 102 having a decoder switch 102a. A subscriber
can control the set-top box using a remote control unit 101.

[0020]The e-commerce trading platform 201 aggregates content from existing
Internet e-commerce sites 800, and this may be managed under standardised
e-commerce logic. Product-related information may be input to the
e-commerce trading platform 201 by one of the following methods:
[0021]1) A "push" method, in which product information is uploaded to the
IPTV trading platform 201 from suppliers, via a data input website 202.
[0022]2) A "pull" method, in which product information is retrieved
("pulled") from an internet e-commerce system 401 at an internet
e-commerce site 800, via a standard set of application programming
interfaces (APIs) 402 as required, for example in response to a customer
enquiry. Pulling product information from an internet e-commerce system
provides the most up-to-date product information possible.

[0023]FIG. 2 illustrates the principal steps of the "pull" and "push"
methods of inputting product-related information to the IPTV e-commerce
system 201. In the "pull" method, a customer initially selects a desired
category of goods that they wish to browse through for possible purchase,
such as for example books, clothing etc. The customer selects the
category via their TV display 103 and the remote control unit 101, as we
describe below, and this information is passed from the set-top box 102
at the customer location to the IPTV e-commerce trading platform 201. The
trading platform 201 then creates a search for products in this category,
for example by retrieving details of suitable internet e-commerce sites
800 from a trading database that lists known internet e-commerce sites
and the categories of products/services that they provide. The trading
database is shown as 206 in FIG. 1.

[0024]Once a suitable e-commerce site 800 has been located, the IPTV
e-commerce platform 201 sends an enquiry to the selected e-commerce site
800, for example via the internet 300 or any other suitable communication
networks. The e-commerce site then searches its site for products in the
desired category, and returns details of products found to the IPTV
e-commerce trading platform 201. The IPTV e-commerce system of the
invention then formats the returned product information to make it
suitable for viewing by the subscriber over their TV display 103, as is
described in more detail below, and transmits the information to the
subscriber location 900 for display on the TV display 103. The subscriber
is then able to view the supplied product information.

[0025]The IPTV e-commerce platform 201 thus acts as a "mediator" between
the customer and the Internet e-commerce site 800.

[0026]It can be seen, therefore, that in the "pull" method information is
retrieved from an e-commerce site 800 in response to a specific query
from a potential customer. In contrast, in the "push" method, a supplier
202a submits product information to the e-commerce trading platform 201,
for example at periodic intervals. This is done via a website 202. The
IPTV e-commerce system 201 stores the supplied product information, in a
preferred embodiment in the trading database 206, and preferably also
indexes the stored product information to allow for easy retrieval.

[0027]When a subscriber sends a request for information about products in
a particular category, the e-commerce trading platform 201 then retrieves
product information from the trading database 206, formats the
information for viewing on the subscriber's IPTV, and forwards the
information to the subscriber location as described above. The subscriber
is then again able to view the supplied product information.

[0028]FIG. 3 illustrates steps in the subscriber purchasing one or more
products or services offered by an Internet e-commerce site 800 via the
IPTV e-commerce trading platform 201. Initially, the subscriber selects
one or more products/services from the information displayed on their TV
display 103, until they have selected all desired products/services that
they wish to purchase. This may be done, for example, by the customer
selecting items to be placed in a "virtual shopping basket" or "shopping
cart" in a known manner. When this process is complete, the customer
checks out of the selection process, and information about the selected
products/services is passed to the e-commerce trading platform 201 and on
to the Internet e-commerce site 800. The Internet e-commerce site 800
processes the order, and will generally ask the user to enter a login to
enable their identity to be verified. The login information entered by
the user is verified by the Internet e-commerce site 800 and, if the user
is authenticated, billing information is sent to the customer location
for display. The customer is then required to confirm the order and enter
payment details, for example credit card details. Once the customer has
done this, the Internet e-commerce site 800 completes the order, and
arranges for the selected products/services to be supplied to the
customer.

[0029]Once the order has been completed, the Internet e-commerce site 800
may send its current product catalogue to the IPTV e-commerce system.

[0030]The IPTV e-commerce system of the present invention is able to
provide content adaptation, which adapts the content of information
returned by the c-commerce site 800 or retrieved from the trading
database 206, to make it suitable for display on the customer's TV
display 103. The content adaptation may include one or more of the
following features: [0031]1) Display Optimisation [0032]a: adjustment
of the size and/or aspect ratio of a displayed page of shopping
information, and/or adjusting fonts and images to take account of the
characteristics of the customer's TV display 103 such as screen
resolution, screen size and aspect ratio; and [0033]b: keyword-sensitive
image caching and pre-processing. [0034]2) Navigation Adaptation
[0035]a: browser key mapping to the keys of the IPTV remote control unit
101; and [0036]b: alphanumeric keyboard emulation--standard or secure
input. [0037]3) Browser Meditation [0038]4) Autoconfiguration Switching

[0039]The IPTV e-commerce system of the present invention is provided with
a display optimiser 204 for performing the content adaptation.

[0040]The various adaptation features outlined above will now be described
in more detail.

Display Optimisation

[0041]As explained above, there are many differences between a typical TV
display and a typical PC display screen; in particular the screen
resolution of a TV display is generally significantly lower than the
screen resolution of a typical PC display. As result of these
differences, the information supplied by an Internet e-commerce site 800
requires to be re-formatted in order to provide a satisfactory display on
the display 103 of a typical IPTV system at a subscriber location 900.
Information supplied by an e-commerce site 800 will typically be in the
form of one or more "data pages", where a "data page" is an information
page displayed by a web browser such that a user may read it by scrolling
down. Data pages supplied by different Internet e-commerce sites will in
general be of different sizes from one another, and be configured
differently from one another. The display optimiser 204 is therefore
arranged to re-format the received pages--whether they are received
direct from the e-commerce site 800 in the "pull" mode or whether they
are retrieved from the trading database 206 after having been supplied by
a supplier using the "push" mode. The re-formatting may involve changing
the screen layout of a particular page, but may also involve more than
this--the lower resolution of a typical TV display screen means that less
information can be displayed per page, so that reformatting the data from
the e-commerce site 800 is likely to involve an increase in the page
count (where the "page count" is the number of pages required to display
all the provided information). Preferably, a data page from an e-commerce
site is likely to be broken down into two or more pages by the display
optimiser such that, when the re-formatted pages are transmitted to a
user, the entire display content of a selected re-formatted page will be
visible to a user when the page is displayed on their TV display screen
103. The adaptation of the format of the data to suit the format of the
TV display screen 103 therefore will generally represent the most
significant portion of the required re-design and development effort.

[0042]To minimise the development effort required for the adaptation of
web trading sites, a common user interface is preferably used to display
the product catalogues of all internet e-commerce sites 800. This user
interface is customised for use with IPTV, and encompasses all the
necessary functions for catalogue viewing and shopping cart maintenance.
The term "user interface" refers to the format of the output from the
IPTV e-commerce system as displayed on the display 103 of a subscriber's
television, and also to the mechanism for a user to enter data (which, as
explained below, is via the remote control unit 101.

Layout/Size Adjustment

[0043]Most Internet websites are designed to be viewed on PC screens
having resolutions of around 1024×768 (XGA). As explained above,
the data pages supplied by the e-commerce site 800 (whether supplied by
the "pull" method in response to a specific request or supplied by the
"push" method) require adaptation for viewing on a IPTV display screen
having a lower resolution. The precise adaptations that are required will
depend on the particular TV standard supported by the display screen 103.
For the PAL/NTSC TV standards, since the resolution is much lower than
for a typical PC screen, the page layout needs to be changed to include
less information per page. The size of images, and the font size of text
used, also need to be increased to ensure good legibility when the pages
are displayed on the low resolution TV display.

[0044]To provide for adaptation of a data page supplied by an e-commerce
site 800 for display on a TV display, there are generally three areas to
be adjusted: [0045]1) Viewing Area [0046]A typical TV screen may be
smaller than, and may have a different aspect ratio than, a typical PC
display screen. To account for this, the standard PC screen page is
trimmed down, so that the displayed image covers a "safe area", which is
an area estimated to be visible on all typical TV sets. The safe area may
be set as, for example, safe area=640×523 pixels (giving an aspect
ratio of 4:3).

[0047]The design alignment of the reformatted page preferably starts from
the upper left corner of the page. This is to avoid placing the content
active elements on an edge of the safe area. [0048]2) Colours on TV
[0049]High intensities of red, green and blue, and saturated colours
(including red and yellow), of a data page supplied by an e-commerce site
800 are preferably replaced with a preset colour by the display optimiser
204, to improve legibility of information displayed on a TV display
screen 103. If a website contains pure white fonts on a dark background,
these are preferably also replaced with a dark font on a light
background. [0050]3) Text [0051]It is preferable to ensure that a minimum
font size is used in the re-formatted pages supplied to the IPTV at the
subscriber location. The display optimiser 204 therefore preferably
applies a minimum font size to the re-formatted pages. For example, a
display optimiser 204 may apply a minimum font size of 20 points for
Chinese characters, and a minimum font size of 18 points for English
characters.

[0053]In a preferred embodiment, the product information is displayed on
the television display 103 of a user using a standard template, designed
specifically to suit a television display, regardless of the original
design and layout of the data pages supplied by the Internet e-commerce
site 800.

Keyword Sensitive Caching

[0054]One often overlooked difference between the "TV experience" compared
to that of a PC-based web surfing is that of user expectation. TV viewing
is mainly still a broadcast experience, so that latency between a user
action and the system response is relatively short. This is not, however,
the case for a PC-based web surfing session. Whereas changing the channel
displayed on a TV set will usually take no more than two seconds, it is
not unusual for a web page to take ten seconds or more to load.

[0055]Thus, if an e-commerce system search were to take around five
seconds, a PC user might consider this to be fast, but a TV user might
well consider it to be slow.

[0056]In order to reduce the time taken to respond to a user request, the
IPTV e-commerce system preferably caches some data, for example in the
image cache 203. While a significant portion of the data from the source
e-commerce sites 800 must be retrieved in real time (for example price
and availability information), some data are more static and thus may be
cached in the IPTV e-commerce system. By storing, for example, images of
products and other sizeable data items related to the most frequently
used search terms, the overall response time of the system may be
improved. The IPTV e-commerce system thus preferably stores images and
other information in the image cache 203. The stored information may be
selected according to, for example, a list of "hot keywords", namely the
keywords which are used most frequently by users when requesting product
information. The list of "hot keywords" may be obtained from the source
internet e-commerce sites 800, and/or may be obtained from a general list
of internet "hot keywords".

[0057]The images and other data stored in the image cache 203 may be
stored in the form in which they are supplied by a source e-commerce
site. In this case, when cached information is retrieved from the image
cache 203 in response to a user request, the retrieved images/data must
be re-formatted by the display optimiser 204 according to one or more of
the methods described above, before supply to the subscriber location.

[0058]As an alternative, the data from the source internet e-commerce
sites may be re-sized before it is cached, so that the image cache stores
the re-sized data. When a user request is received, the re-sized data can
then be immediately retrieved from the image cache and sent to the
subscriber (assuming that the re-formatted data stored in the image cache
has been re-formatted correctly for the IPTV at the subscriber location.

Navigation Adaptation

[0059]Another significant difference between PC and TV usage lies in the
different user behaviour and standard input devices.

[0060]A PC user will normally have their body leaning forwards slightly
(head forward), with the keyboard and screen of the PC within the field
of vision. The distance between the eye and the keyboard is therefore
similar to the distance between the eye and the screen, so that looking
backwards and forwards between the screen and the keyboard is not tiring
on the user's eyes.

[0061]A TV user, on the other hand, normally has their body leaning
backwards slightly (head back), with only the TV screen within view. Use
of the remote control unit is mostly by feel, since looking from the TV
screen to the remote control unit requires the user to re-focus their
eyes since the remote control unit is normally much closer than the TV
screen. The exception is seldom-used functions on the remote control
unit, in which case the user is required to take his/her eyes off the TV
screen and look down onto the remote control unit.

[0062]These differences, together with the fact that a TV user will not
normally have a full alphabet keyboard or a computer mouse available,
means that adaptation of the method in which a user navigates through a
displayed screen, and the method by which a user enters data such as
selecting a product, is required in order to adapt a web trading platform
for use over IPTV.

[0063]According to the present invention, therefore, navigation through
the product catalogue, as displayed on the subscriber's IPTV screen 103
is preferably arranged so as to be possible using primarily the "arrow"
and "enter" keys of the remote control unit 101. This facilitates the
user navigating by touch only, without the need for the user to take
their eyes off the screen and look at the remote control unit.
Furthermore, by using only the "arrow" and "enter" keys, key mapping of
different remote control units to allow navigation through a standard
keyboard is facilitated. The mapping of the keys of the remote control
unit onto desired functions is performed by the set-top box 102

[0064]In one embodiment, a virtual keyboard having a conventional layout
of alphanumeric keys may be used. One suitable virtual keyboard is shown
in FIG. 6.

[0065]A user may navigate through the virtual keyboard of FIG. 6 by using
the "arrow" keys to move up, down, left or right, and by using the
"enter" key to select a particular key.

[0066]The virtual keyboard of FIG. 6 may, for example, be displayed on a
portion of the user's TV screen 103, with product information being
displayed on the remaining part of the screen. Alternatively, a user may
be able to initiate and terminate display of the virtual keyboard using
the remote control unit 101, for example by selecting a "display
keyboard" or "close keyboard" icon displayed on the screen 103.

[0067]The virtual keyboard may be adapted to show the key that is
currently selected in a different manner to the other keys, for example
by increasing the size of the selected key. This is shown in FIG. 6, in
which the "R" key, which the currently selected key, is shown larger than
the other alphabet keys.

[0068]While use of the virtual keyboard of FIG. 6 can provide a convenient
and straightforward method for a user to enter information and commands,
it has the potential disadvantage that any other people within view of
the screen will be able to determine which characters have been selected
by the user. In a case where a user wishes to enter private information
(such as a password), a more secure version of a virtual keyboard is
required. One possible way of achieving this is to select a particular
alphanumeric character using one or more buttons of the remote control
unit, such that an inputted character is not revealed to a third party.
For example, one possible way of entering the full alphabet that uses the
numeric buttons and colour buttons of the remote control unit is shown in
Table 1.

[0069]In the key mapping scheme of Table 1, each alphanumeric character is
associated with (or mapped to) a respective permutation of the one or
more keys of the remote control unit 101 of the subscriber's television.
The user selects a number between 0 and 9 by pressing the appropriate
number key on the remote control unit. To select other characters, the
user pressing a colour key of the remote control unit followed by a
number key of the remote control unit, and the corresponding letter given
by Table 1 is then selected. The television at the user location is
preferably arranged such that the inputted character is not displayed on
the screen, so that the inputted character is not revealed to a third
party.

[0070]In this embodiment, the association/mapping between the keys of the
remote control unit 101 and the desired alphanumeric characters (eg the
letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0 to 9, and any other desired
characters) is made by the set-top box 102, which then instructs the
display 103 to of the subscriber's television to display the association,
for example in the tabular form shown in Table 1 (although the
association could be displayed in any suitable way).

[0071]When the set-box detects activation/depression of one or more keys
of the remote control unit, it determines which key(s) was/were
activated/depressed, and determines the entered alphanumeric character
from the association/mapping between the keys of the remote control unit
101 and the alphanumeric characters.

[0072]In this embodiment, the mapping between the keys of the remote
control unit and the alphanumeric characters may be dynamic, in that the
set-top box 102 may change the mapping. For example, the mapping may be
changed after a pre-set time, a new mapping may be used each time that
secure data entry is required, or it may be changed after each character
is entered. Alternatively, the mapping may be static, in that the mapping
is not changed.

[0073]The secure data entry method has the following advantages:
[0074]1) The method allows a user to enter alphanumeric data via the keys
of a standard remote control. [0075]2) There is no feedback on-screen as
to which key was selected or entered. [0076]3) The method is relatively
easy to use--no instruction manual is required, since the mapping is
displayed to the user on the screen.

[0077]The method is not limited to the mapping shown in Table 1, and any
suitable mapping may be used. Another possible mapping is shown in Table
2:

[0078]To enter a character, the user will have to press a colour key
followed by a numeric key. For example:

TABLE-US-00003
A Green + 0
B Green + 1
Z Yellow + 5
9 Red + 9

[0079]This method can be adapted in many ways to suit different needs, for
example:

[0080]1. The mapping of Table 2 may be changed to allow numeric characters
to be entered directly (without preceding colour button), and use the Red
button combinations for entering other punctuation marks.

[0081]2. If required, the number of characters that can be entered may be
increased by using 2 numeric buttons to follow a colour button press
(e.g. Red+8+0 for ).

[0082]The secure data entry of the method is not limited to the IPTV
shopping method of the invention, but may be used in other applications
where secure data entry of confidential information such as, for example,
passwords, credit card details or price information is required.

Browser Mediation

[0083]The set-top box 102 of the IPTV system at the user location 900
contains a web browser, but in many set-top boxes the web browser is very
light so that its performance may be very slow. Furthermore, some usual
web-related technologies (for example, FLASH) may not be supported.

[0084]In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, therefore, the
IPTV e-commerce system contains a converter 205 for converting a page to
a video stream. The converter 205 receives one or more re-formatted pages
from the display optimiser 204, and converts them to a video stream for
transmission to the set-top box 102 at the subscriber location 900.

[0085]In the case of a set-top box having a good specification web
browser, it may not be necessary to convert re-formatted web pages to
video. In this case, the display optimiser 204 may send re-formatted web
pages direct to the set-top box 102, as indicated by the broken line
running from the display optimiser 204 to the set-top box 102 in FIG. 1,
thus by-passing the converter 205.

[0086]Commercially available packages for converting web pages to video
are known, and any suitable such package may be used for the converter
205.

[0087]FIG. 4 illustrates a system for converting a web-browser session
to/from a video signal, suitable for use in an embodiment of the present
invention in which the converter 205 is provided. The output from the
converter 205 may be supplied to the IPTV at the subscriber location 900
over any suitable active video distribution network 207 that is used for
supplying video to the user from, for example, a video-on-demand (VOD)
server 208. The video is supplied over an existing VOD infrastructure,
for example as MPEG files. Commands entered by the user using the remote
control unit 101 are sent to the distribution network 207 via the
existing VOD infrastructure. Thus, the IPTV shopping experience presented
to the user resembles a conventional video-on-demand session.

[0088]The part of FIG. 4 to the left of the converter (205) is a normal
web browser session. In an implementation of the invention, the output of
the "Display Optimizer 204" is converted to video by the converter 205,
and is passed to the video distribution network 207 for onwards
transmission to a user.

Auto-Configuration Switching

[0089]TV displays are not of a standard size, aspect ratio or screen
resolution.

[0090]In a preferred embodiment, therefore, the IPTV e-commerce system of
the present invention is able to determine information about a target TV
display 103, to which pages are to be sent. The display optimiser may
then use the knowledge of the target TV display 103 in reformatting the
pages. For example, if the aspect ratio of the target TV display is
known, the display optimiser may re-format the pages to that aspect ratio
before they are transmitted to the subscriber location.

[0091]Information about the target IPTV system may be obtained by
detecting the model of the IPTV set-top box 102, and retrieving
information about that model of decoder from a decoder capability
database 210.

[0092]Knowledge about the set-top box at the target IPTV system may also
be used to determine whether a conversion to video is required, and
direct the output of the display optimiser either to the converter 205 or
direct to the set-top box of the target IPTV system accordingly.

[0093]FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration showing a page as displayed on
the TV display 103 of the target IPTV system. Since the number of
categories and sub-categories of products available may well be numerous,
they are shown in FIG. 5 as presented as a simple list. Furthermore, the
list is shown in FIG. 5 as covering three pages, and a user is able to
move from one page to another using the "left arrow" button and "right
arrow" button of the remote control unit 101.

[0094]A user may also navigate through the categories displayed on a page,
for example using the "up arrow" and "down arrow" buttons on the remote
control unit 101. In FIG. 5, the selected category is highlighted, and a
sample of books under the highlighted category is displayed at the left
of the screen.

Patent applications by PCCW-HKT DATACOM SERVICES LIMITED

Patent applications in class AUTOMATED ELECTRICAL FINANCIAL OR BUSINESS PRACTICE OR MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENT

Patent applications in all subclasses AUTOMATED ELECTRICAL FINANCIAL OR BUSINESS PRACTICE OR MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENT